All My Hopes and Dreams

Celia Yeary

Publisher:
The Wild Rose Press

Release Date:
November 21, 2008

Genres:
Romance
Historical Romance Western

ISBN:
eBook
1601543697


Bookmark Rating:



Reviewed by
Natalie S.

Review Posted:
February 2009

Cynthia Harrington is being sold into marriage by her father.  Not wanting to cooperate, Cynthia finds her own man to marry, Ricardo Romero, a Spaniard from East Texas.  Once they arrive at his home, Cynthia is dismayed as well as amazed to find that the ranch she thought she would be mistress of is in fact a huge conglomerate of buildings and homes.  Being the pampered daughter of a businessman has never prepared Cynthia for the things she must face as the wife of Ricardo, least of all how to run his household despite his aggravating mother.  Cynthia wants Ricardo to love her and so tries to find ways to make him do that very thing, much to his mother’s consternation and disappointment.

ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS is well written and romantic at times. The setting of Ricardo’s ranch and all of the things going on kept me reading.  I had difficulty seeing Ricardo blindly allowing his mother to treat his wife the way she did.  More than once I wanted to either shake him, or smack him for sitting back and letting his mother continue to be hateful to his new spouse.  I found Cynthia innocent and very naïve. While she prized herself on being able to stand up to her father and marry Ricardo, she let his mother talk to her any sort of way.  She had gumption though because I would have left Ricardo and his ranch a long time ago.  My second problem, and the most important to me as a reader, is that I never bought into Ricardo’s feelings for Cynthia.  He seemed to tolerate her more than anything and while there were love scenes in ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS, they seemed stilted and very one dimensional.

The plot and premise of ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS is noteworthy but the characters sadly fall flat.  I would skip this historical romance for a read with more emotional intensity and feelings. 

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